A very common feature within application programs such as word-processors or text editors within graphical user interfaces (GUI) such as window-based environments, is the ability for the user to use functions that allow to transfer text or characters in general from one place to another. Examples of such functions are the well-known cut-and-paste or copy-and-paste functions. These functions basically use a buffer memory (often referred to as a clipboard) for storing the text or characters that are to be copied or transferred from one place to another within the same application program or to another application program when feasible. The common way for selecting a portion of a screen to be copied or moved, is to use a selecting device such as a mouse that the user drags over the portion of the screen being selected while pressing one of the mouse's button. When the desired portion of the screen is selected, normally that portion is highlighted, then, the user moves the mouse to the screen location where the selected portion is to be transferred and presses another mouse button for achieving the transfer. While the mouse is the most common selecting device used, in some applications the selection is done using the keyboard (e.g. the VI editor in UNIX environment).
With some applications e.g. some text editors, the user is provided with cut-and-paste or copy-and-paste functions that work only within the same application but not for transferring data to another application. Generally, this happens when the application uses its own clipboard, which is distinct from the operating system's clipboard.
In some other applications such as graphics/image display applications (such as applications accessed through the Internet network), the user is generally not provided with any such functions. If this is the case, the user will have to print the screen or manually copy the text that he wants to keep a record of. Considering the important development of graphical applications e.g. within the Internet network whereby the user may want to store or catch information, it would be very useful for the user to be provided with a system that would offer the capability of a copy/cut-and-paste function that is usable in any window-based application, that displays text or graphics, for transferring portions of screen into a file or to another portion of the screen within or not the same application.